The Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas has taken to social media to note his refusal to vote in the 2024 U.S election, and explaining his reasoning for doing so.

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday (Nov. 5), the vocalist shared an image of a sticker which read “I Protested” instead of the typical “I Voted” illustration. In the caption, Casablancas explained that his post had been prefaced by a discussion with his mother, who expressed her disagreement with his decision to abstain from the democratic process.

“My beautiful sweet amazing mom just told me ‘I agree with you but right now vote at lease to keep trump from winning. Think of your children’,” he wrote. “I understand and respect that viewpoint of marginal incremental betterment, but respectfully do not think it is the path…

“Like I told her, I am thinking of my children. The 2 parties are a joke… a horrible lie,” he continued. “The military and oil companies and banks are who we are voting for – and the media is their propaganda/entertainment wing. [And] with the way they cheated Bernie I see little point in choosing between these puppets… They want you to think it matters. That way nothing will change but it has to change.”

Casablancas’ post was met with widespread criticism in the comments, with fans on sites such as Reddit noting they were “super disappointed” in his decision. Fans on the same site were quick to point out that Casablancas’ bandmate, bassist Nikolai Fraiture, had shared his own sticker from his early voting experiences on Oct. 31.

Casablancas also caught the attention of music fans earlier in the week when he spoke to The Guardian for their ‘Honest Playlist’ feature in support of The Voidz’ new album, Like All Before You. In the discussion, Casablancas reflected on The Strokes’ discography, noting that their breakthrough single “Last Nite” (which peaked at No. 5 on the Alternative Airplay chart in 2002) is a song he can “no longer listen to”.

“‘Last Nite’ by the Strokes is pretty dead to me. I’m not sure why,” he stated. “There are some others like ‘Reptilia’, ‘Hard to Explain’, ‘Someday’, ‘Take It Or Leave it’, ‘New York City Cops’ that are comparable in terms of crowd reaction that I’m not quite as sick of. If I heard it on the radio, I’d probably turn it off.”

‘Tis the season, and Kelly Clarkson is helping ring in the holidays. The superstar is set to return for her second year as host of NBC’s annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center telecast.

She announced the exciting news during Tuesday’s (Nov. 5) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. “Let’s talk about this incredible time of year. The city is so magical. I love the holidays in New York,” she told the audience. “Living here during Christmas is like you’re in a movie. There’s nothing like it in the world, especially the tree lighting ceremony, which is an iconic tradition.”

She continued, “I got to host it last year, and I thought, ‘Oh, this will be fun.’ […] Then, the tree lit up, and you would’ve thought, like, I don’t know, I found out I was going to survive something. I bawled. It’s so beautiful when you’re standing there. I’m especially excited though, because for the second year in a row, I’m going to host Christmas in Rockefeller Center.”

Besides hosting, Clarkson is also set to perform some festive hits at the tree-lighting ceremony. The three-time Grammy winner will have a host of holiday tracks to choose from for her performance, including beloved holiday classics and originals from her two Christmas albums: 2013’s Wrapped in Red and 2021’s When Christmas Comes Around… Additional performers for the special will be announced at a later date.

Christmas in Rockefeller Center will air Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and will stream on Peacock.

Watch Clarkson’s announcement in the video above.

Andrea Swift is just as big of a Kansas City Chiefs fan as her daughter is.

Taylor Swift’s mom attended the NFL game at Arrowhead Stadium with the “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” singer and her son Austin on Monday night (Nov. 4), where she was seen cheering on Tay’s boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce, and she was seen rocking some adorable Chiefs gear.

In photos from the game circulating X (previously known as Twitter), Andrea is seen sitting inside the VIP suite wearing a black zip-up jacket with “In my Chiefs Era” written in Kansas City’s signature red font. Of course, the slogan is both in reference to the NFL team and her daughter’s record-breaking Eras Tour.

See the photo here.

Taylor, meanwhile, arrived to the game rocking a black tank top and cut-off black denim shorts tied with a belt. She completed the look with an oversized, racer-style Chiefs leather jacket and fold-over, knee-high black boots. See her look here.

In fan videos, she was seen waving and blowing kisses to fans after the game wrapped up. She also jokingly mouthing to the crowd that the game was “stressful” — which makes sense given that the Chiefs beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-24 in overtime.

Universal Music Group (UMG), ABKCO and Concord Music Group have filed a lawsuit against Believe and its distribution company TuneCore, accusing them of “massive ongoing infringements” of their sound recordings, including tracks by Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, ABBA, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, DJ Snake, Aqua and more. The companies are seeking “at least $500,000,000” in damages. 

In a complaint filed Monday evening (Nov. 4) in Manhattan federal court by Andrew Bart and Gianni Servodidio at Jenner & Block, UMG, ABKCO and Concord Music Group accuse Believe of being “overrun with fraudulent ‘artists’ and pirate record labels” and distributing copies of those fraudulent recordings to various streaming services and social media sites. 

Lawyers for the plaintiffs claim that “Believe makes little effort to hide its illegal actions” and that the allegedly infringing recordings are “often minor variants on the names of… famous recording artists and titles of their most successful works.” The complaint says the alleged fraudsters attempt to avoid detection of the allegedly infringing recordings — some of which, they claim, are “sped up” or “remixed” versions of popular songs — by using misspellings of popular artist names, including “Kendrik Laamar,” “Arriana Gramde,” “Jutin Biber” and “Llady Gaga.” 

“Believe is fully aware that its business model is fueled by rampant piracy” in “pursuit of rapid growth,” the lawsuit claims, adding that the company has “turned a blind eye” to the infringing content that makes its way to social media and streaming services through its platform. 

Additionally, lawyers for UMG and the other plaintiffs say that “Believe has taken advantage of the content management claiming system” on YouTube “to divert” and “delay… payment of royalties” that belong to the record labels. It is “telling,” they add, that after YouTube resolves these conflicts regarding the rightful ownership of these sound recordings, “Believe continue[s] to distribute the exact same track to other digital music service providers and to seek royalties for use of that track from those providers.”

This is not the first time bad actors have been accused of using YouTube’s content management system to claim royalties that are not rightfully theirs. In 2022, two men in Phoenix, Arizona pled guilty to claiming $23 million worth of YouTube royalties from unknowing Latin musicians like Julio Iglesias, Anuel AA, and Daddy Yankee despite having no actual ties to those artists. To facilitate claiming those royalties, the two men, operating under the company name MediaMuv, used AdRev, a rights management firm owned by Downtown. 

“Believe is a company built on industrial-scale copyright infringement,” said a spokesperson for UMG in a statement. “Their illegal practices are not limited to cheating artists on major labels but artists on independent labels as well — including artists on the independent labels within the trade bodies of which Believe is itself a member. It’s no wonder that Believe has been outspoken against the streaming reform principles for which so many major and independent labels have been advocating. Why? Because such reforms would undermine and expose their system of building scale and market presence by distributing music for which they have no rights and illegally collecting royalties to enrich themselves and their co-conspirators.”

The complaint specifically charges Believe with direct copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, direct infringement of pre-1972 sound recordings, contributory infringement of pre-1972 sound recordings and vicarious infringement of pre-1972 sound recordings.

Representatives for Believe and TuneCore did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s requests for comment.

It’s been a busy year for TuneCore’s parent company Believe. On March 1, the French music giant, which was publicly traded on the Euronext Paris stock exchange, announced that its board of directors had approved the move to take it private and that there was an “interested party” looking to acquire it. First, however, the bidder was requesting due diligence information and financial data ahead of making a formal bid. Later that month, the name of the bidder was revealed when it was announced that Warner Music Group (WMG) had issued a formal notice to disclose its interest in acquiring Believe, which also owns publishing administrator Sentric as well as labels like Naïve, Nuclear Blast and Groove Attack.

In early April, however, WMG called off its plans to submit a formal offer. The label did not elaborate on its decision, stating only that it was made “after careful consideration.” On April 19, Believe’s board of directors announced it was supporting an offer to take the company private at 15 euros ($15.98) per share from a consortium of funds managed by TCV, EQT X and Believe chairman/CEO Denis Ladegaillerie. The board’s three independent members unanimously voted in favor of an opinion that the bid was in the interest of minority shareholders. 

Fraud and copyright infringement have been hot-button issues in the music business as the industry becomes more and more democratized, offering anyone the opportunity to release music in hours — sometimes minutes — at the click of a button. In response, TuneCore, along with CD Baby, Distrokid and other competitors, set up “Music Fights Fraud,” a coalition designed to stop bad actors from hopping from service-to-service to release songs they don’t own the rights to. A number of initiatives, including Credits Due, have since launched to try to fix metadata problems in the music business that can leave artists susceptible to royalty stealing and fraud, particularly on sites like YouTube. 

Still, despite these efforts, TuneCore and other DIY distributors have been accused of allowing bad actors to use their sites to upload infringing or fraudulent content. In August 2020, Round Hill Music’s publishing arm sued TuneCore for “willful and unauthorized use” of 219 of their sound recordings. And in 2022, Billboard reported that some music executives believe Create Music Group games the system on YouTube to claim royalties, with one label source claiming the company was doing so “egregiously.” 

Just last month, TikTok also rang the alarm bell about fraudulent content when it backed out of licensing negotiations with Merlin, a coalition of indie labels and distributors, to allegedly curb users uploading works they don’t own the rights to on the platform. TikTok said it would instead pursue individual licensing deals with labels and distributors that it considered to be safe.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

The 2024 presidential race comes to an end on Tuesday (Nov. 5), nearly four months after Vice President Kamala Harris stepped onto the campaign trail against former President Donald Trump.

This year’s race to the White House featured just one presidential debate, multiple campaign rallies and a myriad of celebrity endorsements from Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Cardi B, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and other music stars.

Whether you’re hosting an election watch party, or attending one, you can expect wall-to-wall coverage across cable news, local channels and social media. If you’re planning to watch the election results live, we’ve collected a list of the easiest ways to watch and stream the 2024 presidential election live without cable.

Election Night: How to Watch Coverage Live Without Cable

Election night is like the Super Bowl for cable news. As such, coverage of the presidential race will broadcast on majors news outlets including MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, CBS, NBC, Fox News, C-SPAN and PBS News.

You can stream cable channels live on DirecTV Stream, Fubo, Sling TV and Hulu + Live TV.

Want to watch for free? DirecTV and Fubo offer free trials for up to a week. Streaming plans start at $59.99 for Fubo and $87 for DirecTV Stream.

Most channels including NBC News, CNN and CBS News, plans to broadcast election coverage live and stream it across their respective, on-demand platforms (Peacock, Paramount+, Max, etc).

For example, CNN’s coverage will include election editions of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN NewsNight: State of the Race with Abby Phillip and Laura Coates Live airing live on the cable channel and streaming on Max. CNN’s election coverage starts at 5 p.m. ET on Monday.

ABC will air and stream election coverage across ABC, Disney+ and Hulu. Fox News’ election coverage will broadcast on Fox News and stream on Fox New Digital.

NBC’s election coverage will stream live on Peacock where users can access election Multiview featuring three live streams of NBC News coverage and analysis starting at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT on Tuesday. Coverage ends at approximately 2 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

CBS News will air and stream election night coverage on CBS, Paramount+ and CBS News 24/7. Primetime coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on Tuesday. Election night will be anchored by Norah O’Donnell live from CBS News’ election headquarters in New York City. Margaret Brennan, John Dickerson, Gayle King, Cecilia Vega, Robert Costa and Ed O’Keefe will join O’Donnell.

Coverage will likely be available to stream on Philo as well. Streaming plans start at $28/month. Click here to launch your free trial.

Want to stream the election internationally? Expats, global trotters and anyone else attempting to watch from outside of the U.S. can access streaming platforms, channels and more with ExpressVPN.

How to Watch Election Coverage on Prime Video

Prime Video will also stream live coverage of the 2024 election hosted by Brian Williams. Election Night: Live with Brain Williams starts at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT on Prime Video.

Access to Prime Video comes included with your Prime membership. Not a member? Launch your free trial here.

Speaking of tech, if you need a new TV for election night and beyond, there are plenty of affordable options such as the onn. 40-inch Class FHD (1080P) LED Roku Smart TV ($118), or Vizio’s Classic 50-inch 4K UHD TV currently on sale for $298.

Need a drink to get you through election night? Total Wine, Amazon Fresh and Walmart offer delivery and in-store pickup for wine, beer, wine, liquor and non-alcoholic beverages.